Pathiraja’s century and Sahan five-for sinks England Young Lions

Trinity College’s promising left-hand bat Pawan Pathiraja scored a scintillating 113 off 131 balls (13 fours) and Peterite left-arm spinner Wanuja Sahan took five wickets for 21 runs as Sri Lanka Under-19 came up with a compelling performance to beat England Young Lions by 148 runs in the second Under-19 ODI and level the five-match series 1-all at the SSC grounds yesterday.

Sri Lanka recovered from losing their first two wickets for 18 to post a challenging score of 251-4 with Pathiraja and Ranudu Somaratne putting together a partnership of 105 for the fourth wicket. Somaratne who scored an unbeaten 58 off 79 balls added a further 60 runs with his captain Dunith Wellalage who made 38* off 22 balls to get Sri Lanka past the 250-run mark.

Fast bowler Yasiru Rodrigo pushed England onto the backfoot with two early wickets to have them struggling at 9-2. Sahan then rattled the rest of the batting with his left-arm spin as England folded up tamely for 103 with only wicket-keeper/batsman James Rew making any impact on the batting with a 57-ball half-century.

The third Under-19 ODI between the two sides takes place tomorrow (Sunday) at the same venue.

Scores:

Sri Lanka (U19) 251-4 (50) (Pawan Pathiraja 118, Ranuda Somaratne 58*, Dunith Wellalage 38*, Joshua Boyden 2/42, Rehan Ahmed 2/41)

England Young Lions 103 (31.4) (James Rew 50, Yasiru Rodrigo 2/18, Wanuja Sahan 5/21, Matheesha Pathirana 2/20). (ST)